


move in agile grace like the air

by gdgdbaby



Category: Captain Marvel (2019), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/F, Mild canon divergence, Reunion Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-11-16 09:16:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18091604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gdgdbaby/pseuds/gdgdbaby
Summary: It takes a long time for Maria's heart rate to go back down, after.





	move in agile grace like the air

**Author's Note:**

> or, carol stays an extra night. title from sonnet viii by pablo neruda. thanks to radialarch for the quick beta.

It takes a long time for Maria's heart rate to go back down, after. Hours later she can still feel the rattle in her teeth, the joystick hot and damp from her own sweaty palm, the calm, focused clarity of mind as she whipped through the canyon. That kind of thing was always heady, even back in school. Always made her count the seconds until she got to go back up.

"Haven't flown like that since we worked with the doc," she says, leaning back. They're sitting on the front porch, watching the sun go down. Monica's running around with Talos's kid, Veranke, showing her the biplane Maria's been teaching her to repair and picking the wild orchids blooming in the field. Pop's inspecting the repurposed quadjet and talking to Fury and Talos, patting the skid marks on its fuselage.

"Took twelve years, but hey," Carol says. "We're combat pilots now." Her knee bumps into Maria's, companionable. She's back in jeans and that Nine Inch Nails t-shirt, and she looks — completely normal, exactly like the Carol that Maria used to know. If she tilts her head and squints, they could be back on Jack and Bonnie's farm, learning how to fly on a rickety old Stearman that invariably seemed ten seconds away from falling apart.

But they aren't. They're here, however improbable, and Carol remembers more now, at least, than she did yesterday. That's something. Maria can only hope the upward trend continues. "Didn't think you'd be speeding around in a skin-tight fluorescent suit when it happened, though," she says, and grins when Carol tilts her head back to laugh.

The door swings open behind them, the thick aroma of Mom's cooking pouring from the house. "God, I remember that smell," Carol says, twisting around, her eyes lighting up. "Mom! The famous Rambeau gumbo."

Maria coughs into her hand to stop her face from doing anything stupid. Mom opens her arms as Carol stands, a spatula in one hand and a soup spoon in the other. "Carol, cher," she says, after a long hug, stepping back to gaze up at her. If her eyes are glittering, no one says anything about it. "Look at you, so skinny. Come inside and eat."

 

 

Some part of Maria had hoped that Carol would be back for good, but she isn't surprised when Carol announces that she's decided to go with the Skrulls. That's Carol through and through, the big damn hero, slaying dragons without thinking twice, jumping headfirst into every every firefight. It's one of the best and most infuriating things about her.

Monica gives Veranke one of her old toy Cessnas before Talos and Soren take the quadjet back up to Mar-Vell's lab. Fury's SHIELD contact won't be stopping by with a working car till the following day, so Maria shows him to a guest bedroom and sets a bowl of milk out for Goose. After Mom and Pop have gone upstairs to put Monica to bed, Maria finds Carol in the living room, flipping through her old photos. The only sound comes from the wind outside and the house's natural groaning.

"At least stay the night before you jet off across the universe again," Maria says before she can stop herself, feet propelling her toward the couch. "It's been a long day."

"I'll say," Carol says, sinking back into the cushions next to her. She lifts the picture in her hand and casts a glance sideways, biting her lip. "This was at your parents' place, wasn't it? I remember climbing the cow oak next to the creek running behind the house."

"Yeah," Maria says. "The first time I brought you home, before Grandma passed." She rubs her nose, fixing her eyes on the ceiling. "They've moved a couple times since then."

"Pity," Carol replies, quiet. The air around them suddenly feels heavy. "I would've liked to go back and see it."

"What, the tree?" Maria says.

Carol lets out a dry chuckle. "Yeah, sure. The tree."

When Maria looks down, Carol's slouched forward, fingers tracing the photo of Monica's second Christmas. Something twists tight in Maria's chest. As much as she's grateful to Talos for finding the black box recording, some small, petty part of her still feels bitter — that Carol had forgotten in the first place, maybe, or that seeing Maria or Monica hadn't been enough to jog her memory.

She knows it's unfair. They're both intimately familiar with the feeling of not being enough, and the way the Skrulls tell it, Carol didn't have much of a choice. It's just that for so long, on nights when the world felt too vast and lonely, the stories Maria told Monica were all they had. It seems impossible that somewhere, galaxies away, Carol was still alive and didn't have them too.

"Anything else you remember?" Maria asks, voice cracking. "Maybe we should've taken more home videos back in the day."

Carol laughs again, shaking her head. She rummages through a few more pictures: one of her bundled up in five layers during a blizzard in Boston, one of their flight of cadets after basic, one of her and Maria at Pancho's, the two of them grinning like idiots at each other.

That last one she picks up briefly, thumb rubbing against the glossy finish, the corner of her mouth trembling. After she puts it down, she turns to meet Maria's eyes, scoots closer. One of her hands lands on Maria's knee, the warm press of her palm making Maria's heart stutter.

"You became my family," Carol says slowly, eyes narrowing. Her gaze drops to Maria's mouth.

Maria sucks in a breath. It catches in her throat on the way back out. "Among other things," she says, and then Carol's swaying into her space.

The last moment before their lips touch, Carol murmurs, "I remember that." The next moment, they're kissing, one soft brush that turns into something more insistent, the kind of kiss Maria's thought about for the past six years and never dreamt she'd be able to have again. Carol's hands come up to cup her face, slide down to her neck to pull her closer, tongue sliding hot along the seam of Maria's mouth, and —

"Uh," comes a voice from the doorway. Maria jerks away, breathing hard. It's gratifying to hear Carol panting too, harsh and unsteady, even as Fury surveys them with barely disguised amusement, a towel in hand. "Sorry to interrupt, but can I borrow a toothbrush?"

"Of course," Maria says, sliding back into the role of courteous host. She leaves Fury in the hallway and digs a fresh one out of one of the cabinets in the bathroom.

He gives her a measured look through his good eye as she steps out and hands it over.

"Look, what you saw back there," she begins, trying to keep her voice even, but Fury cuts her off with a wave of his hand.

"I'm not asking, don't tell me," he says, matter-of-fact. "You're a grown-ass woman, you can handle yourself. Me, though..." He prods the corner of one of Goose's scratches and makes a noise of dismay. "Might need to borrow your first aid kit, too."

Maria huffs. "It's in the first cabinet to the right of the kitchen sink if you need it."

"Thanks, Rambeau. And give that job offer some thought, will you?"

"No promises," Maria says, but she's smiling as she walks away.

 

 

When she gets back to the living room, Carol's sitting where she left her, hands folded in her lap, staring at the pictures on the coffee table. "Hey," Maria says, feeling oddly tender. Carol used to get like that sometimes, lost in her own thoughts, so laser-focused on one thing that everything else fell by the wayside. "You know you don't have to try to remember everything all at once, right?"

Carol makes a face and gets to her feet. "It's just frustrating," she says, gliding over, knocking their knuckles together. "The more that comes back, the more I want to know." She gets up on her toes, eyes wide and earnest, and kisses the corner of Maria's mouth. "Can we, um," Carol continues, almost shy now, hands curled into loose fists at her sides. "Can we maybe go to your bedroom?"

"Staying the night now?" Maria asks, wry.

Carol smiles with her mouth closed, dimple appearing in her cheek. "If you make it worth my while."

"Oh, it's like that," Maria says, rolling her eyes as she turns on her heel toward the back of the house. "Still remember how to flirt, I see."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Carol says from behind her, but Maria can hear the lilt in her voice, the same one she'd use when they'd sandbag at Pancho's just to see red-faced men stomp away from the pool table after losing all their money.

It's dark in Maria's room, and she turns the lamp on before she remembers the stack of unfolded laundry on the squashy armchair next to the dresser, Monica's old soccer cleats piled up in the far corner. There's no time to be self conscious about the state of disarray, though, because Carol's stepping in close and pitching them onto the bed. "Eager," Maria says, flipping them over.

"Trying to make up for lost time," Carol says, trailing her hand down Maria's side, the static shock of it making Maria shiver. Carol's gaze is steady and clear when she tilts her chin up. "Show me what we used to do?"

She doesn't have to ask twice. Maria smiles, ducking her head down, and kisses Carol as slowly and thoroughly as she's wanted to over the last 36 hours, tongue sliding past her teeth to stroke the roof of her mouth, the inside of her cheek. Carol sighs into it, muffled and wet, and gasps when Maria pulls back and kisses her jaw, the pulse point in her neck, hands rucking her shirt up beneath her armpits. 

Carol shimmies out of it and flings it off to the side, rising up to help Maria unfasten her jumpsuit, fingers shaking a little. Maria takes the opportunity to unhook her bra blind, and Carol blinks down at herself as it falls to the bedspread. "You taught me how to do that," Maria says.

Before Carol can do much more than grin, Maria dips forward to swirl her tongue around Carol's right nipple. "Oh, fuck," Carol says, going rigid beneath her, and a fizzing sound is the only warning Maria gets before a small photon blast rattles past her.

Maria looks over her shoulder. One of her picture frames has been knocked off the dresser, shattered on the floor. She turns back to Carol, eyebrows raised.

"I'll replace it," Carol says, mouth wobbling like she's trying to keep from laughing. "Do that again."

Maria dips her head again, slow and deliberate, and sucks Carol's nipple into her mouth once more. Carol makes a quiet noise, relaxing back against the pillows, spine arching as if to push her chest closer. Maria worries the nub between her teeth, and Carol squirms beneath her but doesn't blast anything again. Instead, she brings her hands to the back of Maria's neck and releases tiny sparks across her skin. They tickle, almost, pinpricks of warmth making the little hairs at her nape rise.

It doesn't take long for Carol to start breathing hard. Maria moves to the other side of Carol's chest briefly before continuing down, pressing open-mouthed kisses to the flat plane of her abdomen, next to her belly button, fingers undoing the button of Carol's jeans and dragging them down with her underwear.

Carol kicks her clothing off the edge of the bed and props herself up on her elbows, unabashed. Maria just looks at her for a moment, committing the image to memory just in case, and then hikes her arms beneath Carol's thighs and spreads them open.

Carol groans when Maria leans in to drop a kiss between her legs, light and teasing. "Come on," she says, sliding a hand through Maria's hair.

"You were always shit at being patient," Maria says, laughing when Carol makes a face at her. "Good thing I was, too."

Carol has blue blood now, but she still tastes the same, wet musk filling Maria's nose when she slides the tip of her tongue up Carol's cunt. It's been six years, but the muscle memory is still there, and Carol's body seems to remember what her mind couldn't, opening up sweetly for Maria's mouth and fingers. She makes the same noises when Maria sucks on her clit, when Maria twists two fingers inside her and holds her hips down into the mattress.

Carol's the most powerful person she knows. Even before the superpowers, she could have bucked out of Maria's hold easily, but she doesn't, all that raw power contained even when she comes: legs squeezing tight around Maria's head, curling in so close that Maria can feel her shaking through every place their bodies are touching.

There's an answering throb between Maria's legs as she pulls herself back up. Carol's chest is heaving. Her damp bangs are stuck to her forehead, a satisfied smile spread across her face.

"You gonna return the favor?" Maria says, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, and Carol smiles wider, eyes crinkling at the corners. "Test out what you've picked up?"

 

 

Carol does. Adds a few of her own flourishes, passes with flying colors. For the first time in six years, Maria sleeps through the night.

 

 

She wakes up to sunlight cutting through the blinds and Carol's arm warm and heavy around her waist. Someone in the kitchen is frying boudin — Mom, probably, while Pop stirs butter into a big pot of grits. Maria feels Carol come awake slowly behind her, nose pressing deeper into Maria's nape before her stomach gurgles.

"I'd stay just for the food," Carol murmurs, and she must feel Maria stiffen a little, because the next moment she's straddling Maria beneath the covers, hands pressed into Maria's shoulders. "You have to know I want to stay, but I—"

"I know," Maria says, reaching up to curl a hand around Carol's wrist. "I know. You have to go." She leans up, meets Carol halfway, stretching out beneath her as they kiss. "Don't be a stranger, next time."

"I won't," Carol promises, and then, later, sipping on a cup of tea at the breakfast table: "I have something for you." She pulls a small, blue piece of what looks like plastic out of her suit and tosses it over.

Maria catches it in one hand, inspects it closely as Monica scrambles over to poke at the smooth casing.

"Lifted a communicator off the doc's lab and reworked it a little." Carol runs a finger along the inside of her forearm. A little hologram of her materializes out of the device in Maria's hand before it blinks out of existence again.

Fury stabs a fork in their direction. "Way fancier than the one I got, by the way."

"We're more important," Monica says, puffing her chest out, and grins when the whole table starts laughing.

"No charging stand?" Maria asks, sliding the communicator into her pocket.

"Just leave it out on the windowsill, in the sun," Carol says. "That should power it just fine."

Outside, she accepts the stain-free jacket Monica presses into her arms, touches her hand to Monica's hair as she hugs her one more time. "I'll be back before you know it."

"You better," Monica says, muffled.

"Or maybe we'll just come find you," Maria says. She cocks a hand on her hip. "Steal another quadjet from Pegasus, make some modifications, and — who knows what we could do?"

Carol glances over at Fury as Monica raises two fists in the air and starts chanting _quad-jet! quad-jet! quad-jet!_ "Don't look at me," he says, sticking his hands in his pockets and shrugging. "I'm not listening. Plausible deniability and all that."

"Perfect," Carol says, beaming. "I'll be waiting."

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr @ lucy-vanpelt! also, everyone should go read "higher, further, faster" by liza palmer, the movie's tie-in prequel, because it's great and super gay and has a lot of formative carol/maria content.


End file.
